Legendary Philip Roth, author of 'Portnoy's Complaint,' dies at 85

Author Philip Roth, who tackled self-perception, sexual freedom, his own Jewish identity and the conflict between modern and traditional morals through novels that he once described as "hypothetical autobiographies," has died. He was 85.

Roth was one of America's pre-eminent 20th century novelists in a career that began in the 1950s and continued up until nearly the end of his life, resulting in more than 30 novels and short-story collections over seven decades. His work persistently blurred the lines between fiction and memoir, and often left readers smitten and outraged, particularly in his portrayal of Jewish American life in stories drawn from his boyhood in the predominately Jewish Weequahic neighborhood of Newark, N.J.

At the time his novel "Nemesis" was released in late 2010, Roth was still writing eight hours a day. However, two years later he said in an interview with French magazine Les Inrocks that after re-reading his novels at age 74 he concluded he was finished.

"I wanted to see whether I had wasted my time writing," he said in the interview. "After that, I decided that I was done with fiction. I no longer want to read, to write, I don't even want to talk about it anymore ... . It's enough."

In addition to his novels, Roth spent 15 years editing the "Writers From the Other Europe" series of books for Penguin; conducted a series of interviews with